Ground Swell Education and Year 9 Ambassador Program

In Weeks 1 to 4 this term, 12 Year 9 students have fulfilled their vision as school ambassadors by immersing themselves into an intensive learning experience conducted by Toby Moulton of Ground Swell Education.

Toby is an experienced educator who has taken a year’s leave from his role at Star of the Sea School at Henley Beach to start a sustainability education consultancy for schools.

Toby’s vision for our initiative was very clear:

Students need to be informed about WHY sustainability at home, school and in the broader community is so vital. He views the WHY as the missing link between more genuine connection for students and their personal and collective approaches towards a more sustainable future.

Our program began with confronting and informative workshops, focusing on contemporary environmental issues. These were presented through a ‘lens of hope’, so that the students became even more acutely aware that their positive actions and attitudes will not be in vain and so that students were motivated to continue to pursue the initiative with zeal… and have fun while being active participants.

We conducted a whole-school waste audit together, gathering, sorting, counting and weighing each waste stream that the school generates. We then analysed the data, collectively identifying and agreeing upon three key waste streams we would like to reduce at Concordia College by the end of 2019:

Food Waste

Single-use Packaging

10c Recyclables

We used the data, our personal experiences and knowledge and areas that personally motivated us to formulate a Sustainability Action Plan based upon these three key areas.

Finally, we ordered some important infrastructure (colour coded bins, worm farms and a large compost bin) that will make it easier and more motivating for the school community to think carefully before ‘disposing’ of their waste.

The waste audit data gave us a clear indication that there is much work to be done at Concordia and we feel confident that with 12 outstanding young leaders, our vision of becoming a genuine example for other schools to follow in this space can be achieved.

We look forward to sharing our progress with you and encourage you all to support these young leaders in their quest for meaningful change for our school.

On Tuesday 13 August, 8RCRO and Ms NT went over to the St John’s Campus to read with the Reception students. The Receptions are doing a unit of inquiry on non-fiction texts and habitats, so we read them non-fiction books about animals. It was a lot of fun, and the Receptions loved reading with older students! We were each put with two or three Receptions, and they chose their favourite animal books for us to read to them. The Receptions asked us a lot of questions, many of which had nothing to do with the books we were reading, and we talked to them about everything from animals, to food, to playgrounds, to fluff! It was a really great experience for both the Year 8s and Receptions. It was very fun working with younger kids, and the Receptions had fun working with the older kids as well!

Adelaide Eisteddfod

Congratulations to Concordia’s String Quartet 1, which recently competed at the Adelaide Eisteddfod in the Year 12 and Under (2-8 players) Division. Jasmine 10NMCG, Haneulle 10NMCG, Sterling 9KNIC and Caleb 9SWHI performed brilliantly and won their division. This is an outstanding achievement and reward for their hard efforts!

Balaklava Eisteddfod

On Friday 2 August, the Concordia Rock Band travelled to Balaklava for the annual Balaklava Eisteddfod. They competed in the Senior Rock Band section and performed with energy and vigour. “Black Knight” and “Mr Blue Sky” were very well received by the audience. Jack 11JHAR, Hugo 11JHAR, Luke 11MHAR, Yiannis 9CWAT and Luke 11BTOO should be very proud of their efforts.

Harmony in the Chapel

On Friday 9 August, the final concert in the 2019 series of Harmony in the Chapel took place. Well over 130 audience members enjoyed a delightful concert presented by our school Orchestra and String Ensemble. Martin Butler was our compere for the day, and entertained guests with his stories about the pieces being performed. Repertoire included “Duel of the Fates” by John Williams, “Overture to Rienzi” by Richard Wagner, and “With Fire!” by Darren Mitchell, all pieces which will be performed at the 2019 ABODA music festival by these two ensembles. We were also very glad to welcome 20 students from the St John's Campus, who walked across to join us for the concert.

On Friday the 2nd of August, our Year 8s had the opportunity to go on an excursion to the South Australian Museum. We were to answer questions in our Interdisciplinary Unit ‘Geomorphic Landforms’ booklet, which combines the subjects of Science and Humanities. Home Classes were split into halves and became separate groups. We explored a range of exhibits, from the Mawson and Mineral galleries to the Biodiversity and Fossil galleries.

In the booklet, we were asked to list how visually appealing, interesting, how relevant and how effectively the gallery taught information. We were asked to score the different galleries out of five and justify our reason for doing so. There were also individual questions relating to the specific galleries only.

It was fun to look around in the galleries and write down facts that we thought were interesting. I always enjoy looking at the Mawson gallery because it shows items from expeditions to Antarctica. It was an interesting and informative afternoon and we learned a lot, even though our feet hurt at the end!

Marielle 8VNAR

Thank you very much to Miss Johnson for planning this exciting excursion, and to all the fantastic teachers who accompanied our Year 8 students on the day: Mrs Ridenour, Mrs Crossing, Ms Narino-Terry, Mrs Brown, Mrs Ridley, Mrs Grieve and Mr Lane. As always, it was a pleasure to accompany our Concordia students while they continued their learning outside of the College campus.

Last Friday our Year 10 and 11 parents came together to enjoy their annual dinner. It was a fabulous Indian-themed event featuring a delicious banquet and The Suaviter was transformed into a vibrant, colourful setting for this event.

Thank you to the Year 9 parents who provided help in the kitchen and front of house, and to the P&F members and other volunteers who themed up the room and helped make this event a wonderful success.

We are really looking forward to the Father’s Day Breakfast on Thursday, 29 August. Book online today!

Our Year 8 teaching team has a long history of planning and facilitating an exciting Science demonstration about Chemical Reactions to share with our Year 8 students. Each year we have facilitated this event as part of National Science Week.

National Science Week is Australia’s annual celebration of science and technology, and thousands of individuals – from students to scientists to chefs and musicians – get involved, taking part in more than 1000 science events across the nation. 'Destination Moon: more missions, more science' is the school theme for National Science Week in 2019.

This year some of the demonstrations included the Science behind dry ice and liquid nitrogen. Students had fun seeing the effects of extreme cold and rapid expansion. Chemical reactions also included making elephant toothpaste, burning magnesium and the hydrolysis of water.

Thank you to Mrs Crossing, Mrs Brown, Mr Lane and Mr Spargo for organising this Science demonstration. Thank you very much to Ms Hoffman and Ms Taylor for organising all of the equipment and chemicals, and also to Mr Adams and his maintenance team for their assistance with setting up. A special thank you goes to Marielle and Rachael from 8VNAR for learning how to operate the audio visual system in the Chapel.

Here are some of the reactions from our Year 8 students:

My favourite part of the Science demonstration was when the teachers put dry ice into the bin so that they could blow smoke rings out of it. They made students put the foam cups on their heads so they could blow them off of their heads. Gemma 8LBRO

The best part of the chemical reactions demonstration was the separating of hydrogen and oxygen at the start as I've always wanted to do that experiment. Brendon 8LBRO

My favourite part of the Science demonstration was when I was chosen to partake in the experiment myself. It involved catching bubbles. Having an interactive hands-on experience with the chemical reactions made it far more engaging. Emily 8AMAR

This week we look back at some of the changes to Concordia's football jersey that occurred between 1916 and 1923, including the adoption of a new brown and gold design which was the subject of a mild controversy with another Adelaide school.

We were delighted to welcome back around 30 Old Concordians from the Class of 1969 for their 50 Year Reunion on Friday 2 August, with many making the trip from country areas and interstate to attend. Many memories were shared over dinner, including reminiscing about boarding house life, and we thank all who attended for helping to make it such a wonderful night!